brummie

Press conference at VP at 4, by all accounts.

I've already hoyed some abuse the way of the twat who wrote that. Unfortunately, that's the sort of nonsense that gets all football suporters a bad name.

No, that is emphatically not what I am saying. What I am saying is that all clubs have to do some wheeling and dealing and manage their club on a budget - for transfers AND for wages, and that is precisely what Lerner asked MON to do. I can not believe that - other than Mancini - there is another manager in the top flight who does not have to do that. You're right, MON did well for us for a while - although i don't really see the relevance of your comment re your relegation, the fact you went down was nothing to do with us - but the fact is - and this is what gets lost - he *left* us, he wasn't sacked, he wasn't hounded out, he left us of his own volition. To read people in the broadsheet press - not all, but most of them - like Barclay, Winter and Hayward - you would think he was sacked. He was not. He was asked to work on the wage bill, he said he would, he then didn't do anything about it, and decided five days before the start of the season that he wanted out. For the last x months, the press have been telling everyone this is because Lerner pulled the transfer plug, which the club have consistently denied, and are now proving. The fact that MON decided he wasn't prepared to do something with getting the wages balance right is up to him, but it sticks in my craw to hear it suggested that, actually, it was the club's fault rather than his. I suspect that, now that we have spent a lot of money - and don't forget, we spent 6 or 7m on Makoun last week and will almost certainly buy Adam this week - will not be sufficient proof for MON's media friends that, actually, the financial umbilical chord has not be cut and that they'll move on to "why didn\t they support MON like that? what idiots!" when, actually, we DID support him like that, massively. The club genuinely can not win.

That's not true. Lerner told MON to do something about the wage bill, not that he couldn't spend, as we had big earners, quite literally never getting used, not even making the bench. Sidwell and Davies goign will cover Bent's wages, I imagine, more than, in fact. I know for a fact that if MON had been given 18m to spend, he'd have spent it on Robbie Keane or Kevin Doyle, plus McGeady to add to our wingers collection. Yes but your logic defeats itself frankly - do you honestly think that players who cost a big fee are going to accept lower wages than they could get at another club ? You are virtually saying that Lerner is trying to be like Ashley over wages , yet still pay big fees for top players...just won't happen until all clubs do it. No, that's not what I am saying. I am saying that Lerner pointed out the players on big contracts and big money who weren't getting used - that's the key part, not getting used. Lerner's argument was that he doesn't mind paying out the money, but ideally we'd make sure the big money went to the right players - this is almost word for word what his right hand man said on our forums. Last season we had Shorey, Sidwell, Davies, Beye, NRC not even getting onto the bench most weeks. I'm guessing their combined wage bill per week was 200k. Lerner's approach was that he'd pay the big wages to the big name, but it is hard to make any remotely convincing business case for not moving on any of the above.

I have some Villa supporting mates who don't shed any tears over his departure, and I imagine anecdotes like that are why. But you won't read anything like that in the papers or on football websites, it's all about the miracles he performed and the evil Yank who cut off the cash-flow. Don't get me wrong, he did an awful lot of good for us, but he's a walking disaster in the transfer market. He also has a tendency (shown before us) of leaving clubs in a right mess transfers / wages wise. I genuinely think his main transfer failings are all linked back to the fact that he's just too half soaked or lazy to scout players abroad. We had no scouting network under MON - literally none. A head scout, Ian Storey-Moore, then nobody else. How is that acceptable in the modern game?

Do you ever feel like you're repeating yourself? It must get frustrating saying the same thing over and over - it seems the media myth of the Lerner/O'Neill split is as hard to dispel as the one about Toon fans going on about being the best fans in the world... Something I just heard August 2009 - Villa desperately in need of a striker and have been for two years. MON spends 17m on Warnock, Collins and Dunne, 3 defenders ......... to replace the three defenders - Shorey, Davies and Knight - he himself had spent 17m on the two seasons before. Oh, and he'd also spent 8m on another CB, Cuellar, the year before, too. This while Darren Bent was joining Sunderland for 10m.

That's not true. Lerner told MON to do something about the wage bill, not that he couldn't spend, as we had big earners, quite literally never getting used, not even making the bench. Sidwell and Davies goign will cover Bent's wages, I imagine, more than, in fact. I know for a fact that if MON had been given 18m to spend, he'd have spent it on Robbie Keane or Kevin Doyle, plus McGeady to add to our wingers collection.

Very much so going forward, slightly frightening defensively at times. Early doors yet, but he's a much better bet there than Warnock If Dalglish takes him back to Liverpool, he's spent his ten years out of football mainlining heroin.

It's our old badge for starters. Couldn't they find the one Randy designed with MS Paint?

Football has a habit of throwing up these things. As it will if we get relegated after events at VP when you did.

I have a feeling - and it is probably just me - that Houllier doesn't fancy Gabby much. He's stuck him out wide a bit recently. Carew will leave, absolutely nailed on, now. Downing they have said tonight is going nowhere. Young I still think will sign a new contract but, to be honest, based on his form of the last 18 months, I am not too worried if he doesn't. We've got Marc Albrighton coming along very nicely, too. What we need to do is trim away some of the utter dross MON left us with on high wages. NRC is out of contract in the summer and will go, esp now we have signed Makoun. Sidwell is gone, Curtis Davies will definitely go this window. Habib Beye will go, too, hopefully. To be entirely honest, in this s*** season, it has not been the kids who have let us down - they've done us proud - it has been some older, more experienced players who you'd excpect more from. You lot have actually been playing some food football this season tbh (deserved at least a point against us at the Lane). With the addition of Bent you're easily a top half team. It's such a shame a player of Ireland's class has decided to perform so badly. An in form Ireland, along with Bent, Young, Albrighton, Downing and Makoun is pretty damn good. I pray we don't make any move for Agbonlahor tbh. ----------------Makoun-------Ireland--------------- Albrighton-------------Young-----------------Downing ----------------------------Bent--------------------------- Altough Young hasn't been that impressive playing off the striker whenever i've seen him. Probably Petrov or Delph for Ireland too......what's your prefered team Brummie? That's the thing. The results have been largely awful, but there is absolutely no doubt we've played some really decent footbal. Fulham (a) Stoke (a) Spurs (a) Man U (h) .. these were all matches where we played really good stuff at times, but we only took 2 points from that lot. One problem we've had is that the defence has looked shaky, and the midfield has been so injury hit and generally poor, it puts more pressure on it. Hopefully Makoun will help fix that. Petrov has to go, he's clearly past it. NRC will go. We need to get a goalscorer, stiffen up at the back, and change the centre of our midfield. IF we get Adam in this week, as is rumoured down here, and if we sign Bent, I reckon we'd see us playing a 4-5-1 as you said above, except with him instead of Ireland Friedel Walker - Cuellar - Dunne / Collins - Clark Makoun - Adam Albrighton - Young - Downing Bent I'd actually have Luke Young in instead of Clark and play him and Walker as the FBs, but word is Young's injury is more serious than thought.

I have a feeling - and it is probably just me - that Houllier doesn't fancy Gabby much. He's stuck him out wide a bit recently. Carew will leave, absolutely nailed on, now. Downing they have said tonight is going nowhere. Young I still think will sign a new contract but, to be honest, based on his form of the last 18 months, I am not too worried if he doesn't. We've got Marc Albrighton coming along very nicely, too. What we need to do is trim away some of the utter dross MON left us with on high wages. NRC is out of contract in the summer and will go, esp now we have signed Makoun. Sidwell is gone, Curtis Davies will definitely go this window. Habib Beye will go, too, hopefully. To be entirely honest, in this shit season, it has not been the kids who have let us down - they've done us proud - it has been some older, more experienced players who you'd excpect more from. Sorry, i totally forgot about Warnock. Since the CC Final last year, he's been beyond awful and is, apparently, desperate to leave. Unhappy bunny.

If that happened, I think I would laugh so much, I'd spit out one of my kidneys. It won't, though

I have a feeling - and it is probably just me - that Houllier doesn't fancy Gabby much. He's stuck him out wide a bit recently. Carew will leave, absolutely nailed on, now. Downing they have said tonight is going nowhere. Young I still think will sign a new contract but, to be honest, based on his form of the last 18 months, I am not too worried if he doesn't. We've got Marc Albrighton coming along very nicely, too. What we need to do is trim away some of the utter dross MON left us with on high wages. NRC is out of contract in the summer and will go, esp now we have signed Makoun. Sidwell is gone, Curtis Davies will definitely go this window. Habib Beye will go, too, hopefully. To be entirely honest, in this shit season, it has not been the kids who have let us down - they've done us proud - it has been some older, more experienced players who you'd excpect more from.

Like really, or the joke? Brummie journalists are saying that is the deal. Which Brummie journalists? Some of them on Twitter, just seen the Retweets of them. I've not noticed any, but hey ho. Emile has put in the odd decent shift for us under Houllier, bizarrely. I'd rather Ireland went as part of the deal.

I heard the deal was worth £24 million. £30 million plus Heskey. 17.

Like really, or the joke? Brummie journalists are saying that is the deal. Which Brummie journalists?

I'm stealing that.

Our main problem is - and has been for two years - scoring goals. I don't care if Bent does absolutely nothing else, if he weighs in with one in every two for us, I will be well pleased. Our match yesterday was a perfect example, chances missed all over the shop. A goalscorer isn't the difference between us getting relegated (which we're clearly not going to, even without Bent, trust me), it is the difference between mooking around like we are in the lower reaches this season and being much further up the table. Agbonlahor has been out for an op and looks rusty since coming back, Carew clearly hates Houllier and wants out, Heskey has been good this season but is in no way reliable in delivering goals, and Delfouneso is very, very promising, but it's a lot of responsbility to stick on his shoulders. I genuinely do not care if Bent has the first touch of a rapist, fuck it, we want someone who will get in the right place and put it in the net.

Didn't Bruce sign DJ Campbell for Blues? Just a thought, like.

6th the last three seasons, though. I'm not saying we are going to storm the table and plough into the CL places, far from it, but this season was written off the minute MON fucked us over, you have to remember that.

Elmomomomomhammmmedy I thought he was really good when we played them the other day.

Posted on one of our forums by a chap who is the son of Charles Krulak, Lerner's right hand man: So it looks like it has gone through. I am genuinely amazed they've sold us him.

Aye. They'll struggle then. Mind you, 18 million is a lot of money to find a replacement.

Isn't Welbeck currently injured?